Game over for rental frustration

Gamers have had a long and often difficult relationship with their local video rental stores, and it's a pattern that online service Fatso is hoping to break.

With the average play time in a top title being anywhere between eight and 12 hours, gamers have had to negotiate extended rental times or otherwise drop the discs in the slot and pick up where they left off at a later date.

"We understand the frustration of having to return a game before you've had a chance to finish it," said Cuan Gray when the Fatso Games Club launched this month.

The service, which carries a reasonably deep library of titles across the major Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox platforms at launch, has a pay-as-you-go fee system with no set return date or late fees.

Delivery is free, and efficient. An order placed by nzherald.co.nz staff late one weekday afternoon resulted in a next-day delivery. An automated contact system lets users know when their games are inbound and outbound, and allows them to keep tabs on their content queue.

"We're stoked to deliver a truly cost-effective gaming service with the convenience you'd expect from Fatso," said Gray.